Thursday, June 13, 2013

Math Retreat - Part 2 (plus a quick tuna sandwich)

We spent the night at the Acre Beach Hotel. Guess what: it's actually next to the beach. This was the view from the entrance to the hotel:

So we got up, had breakfast and had checked out of the hotel by 8 am. We drove to the Montfort castle, which was once a Crusader Castle but is now in ruins. We then split in two groups: people that wanted to hike to the castle, and people that wanted to go to some other places and walk around the beach. It is enough to say that I ended up in the group of people with the elder professors.

We ended up going to a couple of different memorial places and natural parks around the area, whose names I forget or never heard. The guide we had spoke the entire time in Hebrew, and it was only fair because I was probably the only one who didn't understand Hebrew. So instead, I'll show some pics.

Afterwards we met the larger group at a Kosher Mehadrin (super kosher) Steakhouse. The food was good, but their hummus was very bland. We split again in two groups: one would go to Rosh Hanikra, the other would go to Tornado boats (whatever that was).

I ended up going to Rosh Hanikra, these beautiful caves way way up in the north. They are literally in the border with Lebanon. You don't believe me?

That is not me on the picture.

And some pictures from above, outside and inside of the caves.

A view from right outside the caves.

A view from the top. We went down using a cable car.

A picture from inside the cave.

So that was essentially the Math Department's retreat. I also had the chance to talk to some people, but didn't really make any friends. It's a bit hard with the language barrier. It was a lot of fun. I had to pay a grand total of zero shekels to got and visited places that I never went to (with the exception of the last, which I *thought* I never went to).

Finally, I got back to my dorm pretty exhausted at around 7:30 and decided that it was time to try something new. On my first shopping trip, I bought a small jar with pesto sauce. Eager to try it, I found an online recipe for pesto tuna sandwich. It was from the Martha Stewart website, so you can imagine how fancy it was. I managed with what I had and did my own take on it. I didn't think that tuna and pesto would go well together, but it was an ok meal. Maybe if I had a different kind of bread it would have been a bit better.

The sandwich is basically as simple as its name. You should mix in three tablespoons of pesto sauce with a bit less than a can of tuna. Then slice some cucumbers, onions or some other veggies you want to throw in there and put it all together. Toasting the bread made it a bit crunchier, too. I would recommend a bread that's thinner than the one in the picture.

Tomorrow is Friday, which is like a Saturday in the rest of the world. I don't have any plans, but I expect to be in Tel Aviv with some friends at some point tomorrow. There will be some cooking in the morning, so stay tuned for that.